It's Enough To Make You Sick
by OfAmethystEyes
Summary: The class has been paired off for a rat dissection lab that Yuki had every intention of skipping until being paired with Tohru. Not wanting to make her do it alone or let it effect her already failing grade, he's left with no choice but to force himself through it whether or not he wants to.


**This is a piece has been in the works for a long time and I finally finished it off. Ever since a few friends of mine from different schools were talking about dissection and I learned that one school required them to dissect rats and the other had required for them to dissect cats. I asked what color the cat had been and she said (of all things), orange. Well anyway, my head screamed for me to put Yuki through a rat dissection and now I have. **

** Note: I'm not sure what year Japanese students take biology but I wanted Yuki to be on student council already so… I'm probably wrong. Just go with it.**

** I claim no copyright to Fruits Basket or its characters and all rights go to Natsuki Takaya.**

** Dedicated to IsoyaMichiko for being my first Yukiru supportive penpal.**

"Everyone listen up! This is important!" Mayu raised her voice a little to be heard and to silence the whisperings between some of the students. "Tomorrow, we'll be doing the rat dissection lab and each of you will have an assigned partner to work with. You don't like your partner? It'll be a chance to learn how to get along."

Yuki had been dreading this since the beginning of the school year. He'd known it would come and had every intention of skipping the class. He couldn't… no. It was _impossible_.

Mayu went through a list of names pairing people off to either the grumblings or sighs of relief that followed. "Honda-san," Mayu said. "You'll be paired with Sohma-san." She gestured vaguely to Yuki so as not confuse Yuki and Kyo.

Yuki felt his heart drop straight to his stomach. If he was paired with Tohru then… Then he couldn't skip. She'd been failing biology and if she received a good grade from the dissection she'd be able to pass the class. He couldn't leave her to do it on her own.

Tohru turned to look at him from her seat, looking worried, but Yuki refused to meet her gaze. He didn't want to feel weak in front of her, but he felt sick. All those rats, being cut open and studied.

As soon as afternoon classes ended, he avoided Tohru and went straight to the council room. He knew she was worried about him and didn't want confirm for her how much he was dreading the next day.

"Aww… Yun Yun, you look so down," Kakeru said, as he walked in.

"I don't want to talk about it," Yuki told him flatly.

Kakeru took a seat and shrugged his shoulders. "Your choice. There's some things I'd rather not talk about too. For one thing, there's that dissection we had to do today—"

"You did yours already?"

"Yep. And it was awful. The rats reeked and it was worse after you slit 'em open. I mean, geez! I never want to do that again. All those guts and all. Yuck." Kakeru looked up and was a little startled. "Yun Yun! Hey, what's wrong? You look really pale; are you all right?"

"What's our agenda today?" Yuki asked, his voice sounding a little choked.

"Um… not much. Just minor details about the class trip. Minor _boring_ details, if you ask me."

"Let the others know that we'll take care of it tomorrow. I don't think I'm feeling too well." Yuki left the council room (and a confused Kakeru) feeling somewhat unsteady on his feet. Tomorrow… He'd have to do the dissection and have Tohru take the notes. He couldn't make her do the cutting and prodding and… Yuki stopped walking and steadied himself against the wall. He couldn't let himself feel this sick just thinking about it; he had to _do_ it tomorrow without failing. And without showing how nauseous it was sure to make him. He could only hope he wouldn't vomit or faint.

"Yuki-kun!" Tohru's voice was relieved as she called out to him. "There you are."

Yuki straightened and tried to smile although he had a feeling it looked more like an odd sort of grimace. "Honda-san… school… this…" Yuki stumbled over his words and gave up on speaking to her for the time being.

"I was looking for you," she said, her face serious. "I wanted to tell you that I'll do the dissection on my own. You shouldn't have to. Maybe if you fake being home sick—"

"No." Yuki cut her off. "I'll work with you. It's okay, it doesn't bother me."

Tohru bit her lip. "But… I know you don't want to and I'd hate to force you to."

"Do _you_ want to do a dissection?" Yuki asked.

"Well, no. It doesn't matter what it is, I still wouldn't want to." Tohru wrinkled her nose in distaste.

"Exactly, there's no difference. We'll be fine." He gave her what was sure to look like a fake smile before excusing himself to go the council room. "Kakeru," he said as he walked in. "Do you have the instructions they gave you for the dissection?"

"I thought you were going home!"

"I am. Do you have the instructions or not?"

Kakeru pulled them from his bag and handed them over with a shrug. "I hope you don't faint like the girl in my class did. I don't know if it was just the rat or the idea of dissecting it." Kakeru took on a more teasing tone and winked, saying, "Just don't pass out Princess Yun Yun!"

Yuki didn't even have it in him to yell at his friend. All he could do was glare half-heartedly and leave.

OoOoO

"Yuki-kun, dinner's ready!" Tohru's voice called upstairs for him, but when Yuki heard it the last thing he wanted to do was eat. Kakeru's instructions were spread out over his desk and every word of it disgusted him; he could hardly bear to read it, much less study the diagrams. But he had to because if he read them today he wouldn't have to leave the classroom to vomit tomorrow.

_Step 1: Pin the rat to the dissection board on its back by placing pins through the animal's front and hind feet. It should place strain on the animal's body to prepare it for the incision._

He kept reminding himself that they would already be dead. He wouldn't have to sense any fear or pain from them. The rats they'd be working on were bred for this; it had been their point in living. They'd lived to die and have their organs examined. But those reminders did seemingly nothing and he still couldn't get past the idea of what he'd be doing the next day.

When he sat down at the dinner table Tohru gave him a worried look while Kyo seemed to be gloating about something.

"What's this? What's this?" Shigure looked around the table in curiosity. "Everyone seems to be in such an odd mood."

Tohru attempted to explain. "You see, Shigure-san, we have to—"

"Our class gets to take knives to a bunch of dirty rats tomorrow," Kyo proclaimed, sounding excited.

Shigure glanced at Yuki, realizing why he looked slightly sick. "That should be interesting for all of you. I hope it goes well. I remember when I did a dissection. Ayaa was my partner and we had a marvelous time. We dissected a cat though, so it was a little different."

Tohru gasped. "The poor cats!"

"They dissect _cats_?!" Kyo looked revolted at the idea. "That's sick!"

Yuki looked at him with a condescending expression. "Doesn't sound like such a great idea now, does it Kyo?"

"Are you kidding? Rats are _bred_ for this," Kyo snapped. "People only want them so they can experiment and cut them open. After all, if they die no one would ever care. _Filthy vermin_."

"_Shut up!_" Yuki stood up, punched Kyo in the jaw and sent him to the floor. In a deceivingly calm voice he said, "I'm terribly sorry, Honda-san, but I don't seem to have an appetite. I'm sure it's a wonderful meal, though. Thank you for taking the time to prepare it." He looked back down at Kyo who was rubbing his sore jaw. "I'm not going to attempt to put into words how much I loathe you right now," Yuki said icily. "An idiot like yourself would never understand."

Before Kyo could finish an angry response the front door had been forcefully shut and Yuki was gone.

"You just don't know when to stop, do you Kyo-kun?" Shigure chuckled to himself.

Tohru looked down at the edge of the table. No matter what he said, she knew that Yuki didn't merely not want to do the dissection; he seemed to have a terribly strong aversion to it. She had no doubt that if Mayu had not paired them for the lab Yuki would have stayed home and not forced himself through it. Tohru knew it was because of her that Yuki was feeling the way he was. It was her fault.

OoOoO

Yuki sat at the edge of his garden, trying to convince himself that the next day wouldn't be as bad as he thought. It would pass without incident and he could put it behind him as soon as it was over. He'd never have to think about it again.

"I'm just over-reacting," he told himself in a quiet voice.

He sat up a little straighter when he sensed another being. Not more than a few moments later, a rat crawled on top of his knee, its nose quivering as it smelled the air around it. Yuki looked down into its dark round eyes, wondering if the rat he'd work with tomorrow would look like this one. No, it would probably be a rat bred in a lab; smaller than this wild creature and with white fur instead of dark.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, gently touching the top of the rat's head with his fingertip. "I'm sorry."

OoOoO

Yuki had successfully avoided Tohru until afternoon classes the day of the dissection. He didn't know whose bright idea it had been to schedule it for just after lunch, but he wouldn't let her try and convince him out of it. She had to complete the lab to pass the class. He could skip and still pass, but she couldn't. The class had been told to leave the classroom during lunch so that things could be prepared for the lab and Yuki had hidden himself away in the council room before she could talk to him.

He'd been surprised to find Machi there as well but collapsed in a chair and laid his head on the table. "Hello, Machi." His voice sounded a little strained.

"Is something wrong, President?"

"Nothing that won't be over in a few hours." Yuki noticed that she didn't have any lunch with her. "Didn't you bring a bento or buy lunch?"

Machi shook her head. "I didn't have time to pick one up at the convenience store."

Yuki sat up long enough to push the bento Tohru had made across the table to her. "Here. I'm not going to eat today and it would be a shame to waste it."

Machi pushed it back towards him. "It's yours, not mine."

"I'm giving it to you. Now it's yours." Yuki slid it back to her and folded his arms under his head. "Eat it, Machi. You should have lunch."

Silently, Machi opened it and took out the chopsticks, beginning to eat the meal "Honda-san makes such nice bento, doesn't she?"

"She does."

After a span of silence, Machi said, "Is what's bothering you today why you cancelled yesterday?"

Yuki nodded.

"I hope it gets better, President."

OoOoO

Yuki entered the classroom minutes before the chimes would sound for the beginning of class. The chemicals in the room smelled awful and desks had pushed together in pairs and on each was a dissection board, the same instructions Kakeru had given him yesterday, a set of tools, latex gloves, and a rat in vacuum packed plastic. Yuki's stomach turned and he was glad he hadn't been the one to eat his lunch that day.

Taking a deep breath, he made his way towards the empty seat next to Tohru and sat down, setting his resolve. "Honda-san why don't you take notes and I'll work with the rat?"

Tohru looked as queasy as he felt and nodded. "Oh, but Yuki-kun, I wanted to talk to you about—"

"Okay, kids," Mayu said. "Everything you need to know is in your instructions. You follow them and you'll be fine. If you have any questions, you can ask me and I'll help you. However you want to divide the work between you, I don't care so long as both of you _do_ something. And for god's sake, wear the gloves. Understand? Okay, begin. Use the scissors to open the plastic and try not to get sick. When you finish, I'm going to do a quick check of your work and then you can wrap the carcass in paper towels and put it in this trashcan." She pointed to a trashcan in the corner of the room and sat down behind her desk, pinching her nose.

Yuki slipped the gloves over his hands and picked up the scissors cut the dead rat out of the plastic. "Yuki-kun, wait." Tohru put a hand on his wrist. "L-let me."

"Honda-san, you don't want to do this anymore than I do." Yuki looked at her with fake confidence. Her face lacked its usual color and Yuki knew he wouldn't let her touch any of the tools that afternoon. "I can do this, and I will. I know you're worried but you don't have to be."

He kept his hands from shaking only by sheer force of will as he removed the lifeless white rat and laid its body on the board.

Tohru opened the instructions and read the first step in a shaking voice. Yuki already knew what it would say and took the case of long pins to carefully spread and pin down the rat. He tried not to think as he completed the task.

"Using the forceps, pull the skin away from the body and make a cut following the diagram along its body and legs." Tohru sounded nervous and a little horrified. "I-I'm sorry, I don't think I can watch. I know I'm supposed to help, and I really should—"

"That's fine, Honda-san. You don't have to look." That's why he was there wasn't it? Asking Tohru, of all people, to slice open a dead animal would be unforgivable. Yuki fought back nausea as he cut through the fur and skin and peeled it away, pinning it back to reveal the abominable wall and the organ outline underneath. The smell was terrible and made Yuki want to gag. Setting down the tools he waited for his hands to stop trembling before telling Tohru he was done. "You should probably look just so you know and can answer any questions."

The rest of the lab went that way; Yuki trying his best not to appear sick and Tohru covering her eyes while he performed the steps and looking only once he was done. After the abdominal wall had been cut away to reveal the organs there were two worksheets to fill out and an organ diagram to label before they were done. After Mayu checked through the paperwork and gave her approval, Yuki cleaned up quickly, wrapping the damaged rat in paper towels before delivering the mess into trash can at the front of the room.

"Sensei, do you mind if I leave to wash my hands?" he asked, silently begging for her to let him leave the room.

"Of course. Go ahead."

Yuki didn't need another word before he was out of the classroom and racing for the restroom. He was glad no one else was there; he'd held it back for the past hour and _now, _finally he could be sick. Five minutes later he got up off of his knees and flushed the toilet, once again glad he hadn't had lunch but regretting breakfast. He still felt nauseas but it was over.

It was _over. _He didn't have to think about it anymore. He didn't have to worry about it anymore. It was over. Yuki gave a sigh of relief as he washed his face and hands. He rinsed and spit for a few times before leaving, knowing he had no intention of returning to the classroom. He'd probably hide out in a stairwell for the next half-hour until school let out. He didn't care about any ridicule he might receive. He'd finished the dissection, no one should have any legitimate complaints for his skipping.

To his surprise Tohru was waiting outside for him, still looking shaken and pale. "I'm very sorry, Yuki-kun." Tohru bowed, not looking up at him as she continued, "It's my fault you had to do that, and I'm sorry. But… but I think I should thank you too. I know you only did the dissection because we were paired together and it was very kind for you to do what you did. I don't think I could have made it all the way through without you, but I know I wasn't any help. Please forgive me."

Yuki was taken aback by her apology and thanks. He hadn't meant for her to know just how much it bothered him. "Honda-san, you don't have to apologize for anything." Tohru looked up, concern still in her eyes. "It bothered me to do the dissection, yes, but that's not your fault. I was happy to help you even if I didn't enjoy what we were doing. You don't need to apologize for anything."

"But I—"

"I'm not planning on going back to class today since they're just finishing up the dissection. I'm assuming you don't want to either?"

Tohru shook her head. "I don't think I could."

"Why don't we skip together, then? I was just going to sit in the stairwell, but we could go somewhere else if you wanted."

"You could show me the council room. I've never seen the inside." Tohru looked curious.

"It's really not that exciting or impressive," Yuki sighed. "But all right." He could feel a small smile for the first time since Mayu had made the announcement the previous day. Holding a finger to his lips to signal for quiet, he led her through the halls and to the council room. After they were inside, he said, "I've actually never cut class before."

"Neither have I," Tohru said nervously before looking around. "So this is where you spend your time after school?"

Yuki nodded. "It's hectic and sometimes overwhelming but I think it's worth it." It was different to have Tohru in the council room and he wasn't used to it but he showed her where everything was before sitting down and offering Tohru a chair. They talked for a while but it wasn't long before the chimes rang signaling the end of school.

Tohru stood up, "I guess I should head home and start dinner. Do you have a meeting?"

"Yes. I'll be staying right here until the rest of the council members arrive. It shouldn't take too long though."

"Okay. I'll have supper ready when you get home." She turned to go but Yuki stopped her.

"Honda-san, I couldn't have done that lab work without you either. Thank you."

Shortly after she left for the door opened again and Machi came in, setting her schoolbag down on a chair.

"Did it get any better, President?" she asked. "What was bothering you earlier?"

"No. Well, maybe. But it's over."

**There. I did it. Not to sure about it entirely, but there it is. I believe HitodeDaikazoku once said she wished Machi had made an appearance since she'd never met her. Now she has. That's not all there is to her, but I wrote her and Yuki in the same room which is a first. If it seemed like YukixMachi (I actually sort of like the pairing as surprising as that may be) that's because it might have been. This story isn't pairing specific. **

** If this story seemed familiar it's because the premise of Yuki having to do a rat dissection was originally from a status I used my Yuki RP page over on Facebook this summer. I put it there primarily as a reminder to write this sometime.**

**Please please review! I would love to know what you thought! Was the dissection accurate? I never had to do one in high school and researched a little to get this (hopefully) right. It was disgusting but I forced myself through it. Please let me know what you thought! **

** (Sacrifice will be updated. I am working on the next chapter currently. Expect it sometime next month or earlier.)**


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